FAX / XMedius service outage: Monday, Feb. 25 2013 8:13 AM – 8:50 AM

The XMedius FAX server became unresponsive at 8:13 AM this morning and services were unavailable until 8:50 AM.   A server restart was done to clear the problem.

We apologize for any inconvenience this problem may have caused.

– Computing and Communications Service

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Outbound RMail delivery delay: Wednesday, Feb. 20 2013 10:23 PM – 11:52 PM

The outbound e-mail server that scans messages for spam and viruses became unresponsive at approximately 10:23 PM on Wednesday.   Services were restored around 11:52 PM.  During the outage, all messages sent by users were queued on the RMail system and delivered after services were restored.

The problem seems to be hardware related and further investigation is taking place.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

-Computing and Communications Services

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Adobe Reader and Acrobat Security vulnerabilities

Adobe Systems has issued a security advisory for critical vulnerabilities identified in Adobe Reader and Acrobat.
These vulnerabilities are already being exploited through sophisticated and targeted attacks that install malware, steal passwords, record keystrokes and collect other system information.  There is no fix available at this time, but users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the latest versions of their software and implement the following workarounds.
Windows users:
Configure the application to open PDFs in Protected Mode.  To do this, open the program and go to the Edit > Preferences > Security (Enhanced) menu.  Check the box labeled “Enable Protected Mode at startup” and click the button for Protected View > All files.
Mac OS X users:
View PDFs via Preview instead of Adobe.  To do this, right click on any PDF file.  Choose “Get Info”.  Use the “Open with:” option and select Preview as your default PDF reader.
Linux users:
There are no workarounds for Linux at this time, except the option to switch to an alternate PDF reader.
As always, the best defense is to avoid opening any unsolicited or unfamiliar files.  This advisory will be updated when a fix becomes available.
-Computing and Communications and the Information Systems Security Officer
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Alfresco service outage: Wednesday, Feb. 20 2013 13:24PM

The Alfresco database server crashed and rebooted this afternoon at approximately 1:24 PM.   The outage affected the Admissions and Campus Facilities and Sustainability document  management systems.  Services were restored around 3:10 PM.

We are investigating the reason for the unexpected server reboot.

We apologize for any inconvenience this problem may have caused.

– Computing and Communications Service

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CAS, RAMSS, eHR outage: Saturday, Feb. 16 2013 5:04 AM to 8:31 AM

A network device failed at 5:04 AM this morning making Ryerson’s Central Authentication System unavailable as well as RAMSS and eHR. The system was restored by 8:31 AM this morning.

Please accept our apologies for the outage.

For those interested in a more detailed technical explanation of this outage, here is a little more information:

The Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) instance on the Alteon load balancer that services the subnet that the SSL accelerators are on,  stopped working this morning at 5:04am. The result was that the SSL accelerators were not able to comunicate with hosts outside their subnet. As a result, the applications that are ssl offloaded by this load balancer, eHR, RAMMS and CAS were not working. All the health checks were good on the load balancer and there were no log entries regarding the problem. This time the SSL accelerators were not the problem, it was the alteon load balancer.

The VRRP instance was disabled to make the load blancer work. This is the first time we have encountered this type of problem.

-Computing and Communications Services

 

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my.ryerson service disruption for users with applicant role: Monday Feb. 11, 2013

CCS became aware on Monday morning that users who only have an applicant role at Ryerson were unable to login to the my.ryerson portal since Friday, Feb. 8, when the 2-factor authentication service was released.

Upon investigation, a logic error was discovered in the web service that CAS calls for 2-factor authentication.  The problem was resolved on Monday around noon.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

-Computing and Communications Services

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RMS Administration, Activation and Self Service outage: Wednesday, Feb. 6 2013 11:10 AM – 11:15 AM

A back end RMS application failed at approximately 11:10 AM this morning.  It was restarted at 11:15 AM.    During the ~ 5 minute outage, the following services were not available: RMS Administration, Activation and Self Service.

The cause of the problem is still being investigated.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

-Computing and Communications Services

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VAPPS service disruption: Monday, Feb. 4 2012 10:18 AM – 10:47 AM

The virtual applications (VAPPS) service was not available between 10:18 AM – 10:47 AM.   Technical staff are investigating the root cause of the problem and working with the vendor to resolve the issue.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

– Computing and Communications Services

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VAPPS service disruption: Saturday, Feb. 2 2012 8:38 AM

The virtual applications (VAPPS) service has not been available since approximately 8:38 AM.   The problem seems to be related to a network load balancer.   Network staff are investigating the root cause of the problem and working with the vendor to resolve the issue.

Update 2:10 PM: Service was restored at approximately 1:10 PM.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

– Computing and Communications Services

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VAPPS service disruption: Thursday, Jan. 31 2012 02:45 AM – 09:50 AM

Virtual applications (VAPPS) experienced intermittent service disruptions this morning, starting at approximately 2:45 AM and ending around 9:50 AM.   The problem seems to be related to a network load balancer issue.   Technical staff are investigating the root cause of the problem.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

– Computing and Communications Services

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